POLLUTION OF SALMON RIVERS 257 



Pollution is the most serious evil of the day 

 with which we have to contend ; nearly every 

 evil may be attributed to it. Our rivers, the food 

 we eat, the very air we breathe, everything, are 

 more or less polluted, and disease walks rampant 

 in our midst. The only wonder is that even 

 more serious consequences have not resulted. 

 The population is ever rapidly increasing, and 

 each year it becomes more urgently necessary for 

 the Legislature to guard against the ravages of the 

 hydra-headed fiend. It is all very well to make 

 laws, but if they are to be disregarded and violated 

 with impunity, they are worse than no laws at all. 

 A law is an order given by the State ; if that 

 order is not carried out, and its execution seen to, 

 it becomes a positive evil. 



Is it to be wondered at that a salmon, a fish 

 which is at liberty to select any river, should 

 hesitate to ascend one in which every description 

 of filth sewage, refuse from gas, dye, mineral, and 

 other works of a like nature is for ever sullying 

 the purity of the water ? It must be, in truth, a 

 brave and determined fish which can face such 

 abominations as these, and especially so when it 

 is remembered that such a fish has come fresh 

 from the unpolluted waters of the deep seas. 

 Nothing but the most powerful longing to return 

 to the home of its birth, and there be fruitful 

 and multiply, as did its forefathers, can prove a 



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